Roundup in the works targeting those who have been ordered deported

SAN ANTONIO - Immigration agents are planning to round up Central American families who have been ordered deported by judges in response to an unexpected surge in children and families crossing the border in South Texas, a former high-ranking immigration official said Thursday.

Alonzo Peña, a former deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said officials are concerned because the number of families crossing the border usually slows this time of year, yet Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley have seen an increase in recent months.

The Border Patrol apprehended about 50,000 children and families in 2015 in the Rio Grande Valley, down from about 100,000 in 2014, but the number of apprehensions has spiked since September, Border Patrol statistics show.

'Border is not open'

News of the planned raids was first published by the Washington Post.

In a written statement, ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen did not dispute reports about the planned raids. Christensen said ICE focuses on deporting immigrants who fall under a set of priorities laid out last year by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

"These include individuals, whether alone or with family members, who have been apprehended while attempting to unlawfully enter the United States, recent border crossers, and individuals who have received a final order of removal on or after January 1, 2014," Christensen wrote.

"As Secretary Johnson has consistently said, our border is not open to illegal immigration, and if individuals come here illegally, do not qualify for asylum or other relief, and have final orders of removal, they will be sent back consistent with our laws and our values."

'Send a message'

The Post reported the roundup likely will happen in January but had not received final approval. Hundreds of immigrants might be targeted, the newspaper said.

The raids could come at a sensitive time for President Barack Obama and the Democratic front-runner to succeed him, Hillary Clinton.

A record pace for deportations in 2014 earned Obama the disparaging nickname "deporter in chief" among pro-immigrant activists whose criticism helped inspire executive orders to pull back on deportations and offer temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of unauthorized workers.

Peña, ICE deputy director in 2009 and 2010, said: "They've got to figure out ways to send a message that the gates are not open, the doors are not open and it's not a free pass. And they're concentrating on those that have final orders, who have exhausted their due process."

ICE regularly conducts what it calls targeted enforcement operations, in which agents round up immigrants who fall under the agency's priorities for deportation, including those who recently crossed the border, those convicted of crimes and those who've been ordered removed by an immigration judge.

This would be the first such operation specifically targeting families.

Those who lost appeals

"Such a roundup would be a nightmare for those families and for our claim to being a nation of refuge," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the immigration advocacy group America's Voice.

Peña said most of those who will be picked up won't be immigrants who were ordered deported after failing to appear before an immigration judge, because they might be eligible for a new hearing.

Instead, ICE will focus on immigrants who lost their appeals, he said.

Last year, immigration officials began holding families at a 500-plus-bed facility in Karnes County and one in Dilley, at 2,400 beds one of the largest detention centers in the country.

Activists have accused the government of mistreating detainees, and said that even if the conditions are improved, families fleeing violence in their home countries only will be subjected to more trauma during detention.